A hood is typically attached to the body of a vehicle with a hinge that enables the hood to be opened at the front end to gain access to the engine and other components in the engine compartment of the vehicle. Some hood hinge assemblies have been developed to move the back end of the hood away from the engine block when the hood experiences an impact. In such cases, however, the hinges do not prevent movement of the hood in the fore and aft directions, which may result in misalignment of the hood. Furthermore, some of these movable hinges may be bulky and therefore difficult to incorporate into a vehicle without interfering with other components.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved hinge assembly that, when impacted, enable the hood to move away from the vehicle body. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.